Does Personality Trump Character and Issues?

Last night on the CBS evening news, the CHIEF STRATEGIST for the McCain/Sarah ticket said that this campaign is not about issues--it's about PERSONALITIES. This is frighteningly scary.

If issues aren't the issue, we are in serious trouble. Is it possible that Americans no longer care about issues--Social Security, Education, the ECONOMY, Iraq, Afghanistan, Elder Care, HEALTH NEEDS? Are there enough people in this great country that will decide the future of the country and by extension the world on personalities? Can that really happen?

McCain/Palin will not discuss issues. It seems that by the purposeful design of McC/P we voters will not have access to reasonable discourse by divergent parties. Instead it appears that everything said by Obama and Biden will become fodder for M/P to direct attention from issues. Case at point: "You can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig."

McCain knows that he has used this expression and in his case it was deliberately used against Hillary Clinton's health care plan; revered Dick Cheney used it to denigrate a position he opposed; it is an old, old expression. When Obama used it, he was speaking of a position that McCain has taken on the economy. If one listens to it, it is clear that Palin was not the target. I wonder what the world's response is when the big issue in the campaign for the presidency of the United States of America has boiled down to pigs and lipsticks? Do you suppose they are shaking their heads and seeing immaturity and childishness? Maybe.

And then there is the Mc/P commercial that contends for being the sleaziest, meanest, most dishonest, dirtiest mud-slinging charge of this and past presidential contests--the one that accuses Obama of writing, promoting and voting for a bill that would result in the teaching of "comprehensive sex education" in kindergarten. The New York Times as did Fact Check delineated the gross distortion in this commercial. I would like to think that anyone would question it, but, I am afraid that there are people who want to believe anything negative.

And....when Joe Biden spoke to the role stem-cell research can play in addressing birth defects, an issue that is clearly a legitimate discussion issue, the McC/P team pounced and claimed that this was a direct attack on Palin as she has given birth to a Downs Syndrome child and she is opposed to stem cell research. Does this mean the issue now can not be raised?

I hope that the McC/P strategy is wrong. I hope this election is about character which is so much more than personality. Personality is found in people and mediums which focus on the surface of things. Character is what is found in people and mediums which focus on substance. Personality is used to camouflage what is wanted to be hidden. Character is not afraid of hard issues and addresses the difficult. I hope that the American public will begin to see through the camouflage and smokescreens behind which McC/P are hiding and that we as a nation will demand dialogue on substance and the difficult. I hope we demand character. I hope that McC/P will show character and lose the fear of exploring issues with their opponents. I hope that we will have an election campaign focused on the intelligence of our population rather than the prejudices. I hope we grow up.

There are two websites which I find useful and worth checking out from time to time when rumors seem to be taking over truth. Fact Check and On the Issues. The first researches rumors and reports on the truth or lack of truth there in. The second delineates each candidates background, stand and experience on major issues. I do find it interesting, in the light of claims of experiences being bandied about that Palin's list is much less comprehensive than the other three candidates. I think this is worth pondering.